'I've got proof my ex cheated on me, but he still refuses to admit it'

When my husband of six years dumped me, without any warning, I was so shocked I could hardly breathe. It threw me into a depression I hadn't felt since I was a teenager.

I was absolutely devastated and because I wasn't thinking straight, I let him keep our house. Thankfully we didn't have children — I don't think I could have coped with having to go through a custody battle as well as a financial battle, because the financial battle was a nightmare.

In the end, I just walked away with $50,000 while he kept our house, which was worth around $800,000 at the time. I regret my actions now and wish I'd fought harder, but my mental health was suffering so it was easier to walk away.

Max* never really gave me a proper explanation for leaving me.

There was photo proof of his affair, but Max still refused to admit to it. (iStock)

He said he never had an affair, there wasn't a third party involved and he just wanted to be single again. I had no choice but to accept his decision and it really broke me. I was in the lowest state I'd ever been in.

Just as I was feeling better, about a year later a friend of a friend told me Max had been having an affair with a woman she knew through her work named Lisa*.

I got upset and told her I didn't believe her, but she showed me a photo of Max with Lisa, with arms around each other, looking like they were on holiday – there was a beach in the background – and other photos of them kissing. She told me she found the photos on Lisa's Instagram page.

Even though my marriage was over and I'd tried to put this all behind me, I confronted Max and told him I knew all about Lisa.

He played dumb and said I was going crazy, that he didn't know anybody called Lisa.

I even texted him the photo of them together and he made up a story about how she was an ex-girlfriend from years before he met me — but I knew that was a lie because he had a beard in the photo and he'd never had a beard before he met me.

I've tried time and time again to get him to admit he'd had an affair and that's why he left me, but he keeps denying it.

I've almost begged him to admit the affair to me as it would give me peace of mind in a way.

It might sound strange, but if he told me he'd been having an affair and left the marriage to be with her, or if he left me because he felt too guilty staying married to me, then it's easier to accept than just using the excuse "he left me."

I haven't spoken to Max for over a year now, but recently I saw that friend again, the one who knew Lisa.

She told me she got more information from her: they'd had an affair for nearly a year. According to my friend, Lisa ended her relationship with Max when she went back to her husband, so it sounds like a dirty story all around.

I just wish Max would own up to the affair, but if he refuses, even after he's confronted with a photo of him kissing his girlfriend, then he will never admit it to me.